The collaboration of Emil Artin and George Whaples: Artin's mathematical circle extends to America (Q715163): Difference between revisions

Artin did not publish any papers between 1933 and 1940, in 1937 he had to emigrate. He got support from Father John O'Hara and from Solomon Lefschetz; Artin's first position was in Notre Dame (Indiana) and after a short time he became professor at the University of Indiana. George Whaples got his PhD in 1939 at the University of Wisconsin, afterwards he got a post-doctoral position for two years at the University of Indiana, where he met Artin. Artin, who had given courses in class field theory in Hamburg during the years 1931/32, was successful in interesting Whaples in class field theory, so both worked together on this field. They collaborated on three papers which were published in 1943, 1945 and 1946; these papers represent quite significant contributions to algebraic number theory. However, Whaples also published his own results. Whaples continued the research in class field theory which Artin had initiated in Hamburg. During the years 1941/42, Whaples gave a series of courses on class field theory in Princeton at the Institute for Advanced Study. During this year celebrated mathematicians like James Alexander, Marston Morse, John von Neumann, Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Siegel were permanent members of the Institute. In 1942, Whaples took a position at Johns Hopkins University and in 1944 at the University of Pennsylvania; in 1947 he returned to Indiana University. In the same year Artin left Indiana and moved to Princeton. Here John Tate completed his doctoral thesis under Artin's supervision in 1950. One year later Artin published a textbook on algebraic numbers and algebraic functions [Algebraic numbers and algebraic functions. I. New York: Princeton University, New York University (1951; Zbl 0054.02101)]. This textbook motivated other students to continue this research. It was Artin who had brought class field theory to America. The article is based on a huge amount of archival material which was not known until now. It is a quite noteworthy contribution to Artin's stay in America.